1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a master-slave manipulator and a medical master-slave manipulator.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in order to reduce manpower in medical facilities, medical procedures using robots have been under study. Particularly in the field of surgery, various suggestions have been made regarding manipulator systems that use a manipulator having a multidegree-of-freedom (multiarticular) arm to treat a patient. In connection with such manipulator systems, there is known a manipulator system (master-slave manipulator) in which a manipulator (slave manipulator) that comes into direct contact with a body cavity of a patient can be remotely operated by a master operation input device. Recently, there has also come to be known a master-slave manipulator in which a slave arm of a slave manipulator has redundant degrees of freedom. Moreover, there is also known a master-slave manipulator in which an operation unit for operation input to the above-mentioned slave manipulator having redundant degrees of freedom is provided on the side of a master operation input device. For example, according to Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2006-334695, an arm body configured to transmit the motion of the arm of a user to a slave arm comprises an elbow switch. This elbow switch is provided in a part of the arm body where the elbow of the user is mounted, and is capable of controlling movement having two degrees of freedom.